"We can talk about all these wonderful things we'd like to see happening. But where do we get the resources?" - Jennifer Smallwood, board president

The tasks outlined by Harrisburg School District officials Thursday night seemed borderline impossible: pay off $437 million in debt while improving its programming, test scores and community perception – all on a reduced budget.

Plus restart pre-kindergarten. It will cost at least $1.2 million a year, but seems well worth it for the maturity, skills and engagement that it so distinctly imparts on its charges that, years later, teachers can still pick them out – that is the experience of Sherri Magnuson and the teachers she represents as head of the Harrisburg Education Association.

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Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney said that her vision would include starting internships and co-ops, in addition to counseling students before they hit high school to find out their professional aspirations and how to guide them.

Finally, there’s restructuring the district’s organization to re-create middle school for all students.

But 47 percent of the tax base is exempt from paying.

And district enrollment has dropped nearly 2,100 students during the past five years, with some choosing charter schools at a cumulative tuition cost that surpass $9 million next year.

Gene Veno, the district’s chief recovery officer, encouraged his advisory committee – comprised of administrators, teachers and residents from in and around Harrisburg – to compile their wishlist. Some of it, he hopes, will be integrated into the recovery plan for which he requested a 45-day extension earlier this week.

His extension request is under review, state Department of Education spokesman Tim Eller said Thursday.

“We’ve having healthy discussions about what they’d like to see and their main drivers to change the mindset of the community," Veno said of his progress with school stakeholders. “It’s really just looking at costs versus the return on investments.”

Veno spoke after a public meeting designed to get input and answer questions from the community. There will be more of those sessions between now April 26, the plan's new deadline if the state agrees to the extension.

After that, the Board of School Directors has a year to approve it. If that doesn't happen, the school will be placed in a receivership. In that scenario, a state-appointed receiver will run the district - meaning the board and administrators will answer to that person instead of taking Veno’s advice, as they do now.

The main factor in Veno and his team needing more an extension is that many of the days since his appointment Dec. 12 have been consumed by holidays and budget preparations.

Mainly, that means getting fixed interest rates instead of the variable ones that now apply to the district's loans. But ultimately, that might not save much money on annual debt service payments projected to go as high as $21 million during the next five years, said Dean Kaplan, managing director of financial consultancy PFM that’s also part of the recovery team.

The district now is looking at paying down nearly $265.4 million in principal and $171.7 million interest during the next 25 years or so – mostly construction loans, he said.

However, Kaplan had some positive news to share.

Kaplan said he believes the district could get a substantial amount of funding for pre-kindergarten given the research supporting the program, particularly for the economically disadvantaged students that make up a substantial portion of the Harrisburg district’s student body.

The flight to charter schools will taper off, too, he said.

He also said the district could be eligible for as much as $60 million from the state through PlanCon, which reimburses school district through for construction projects.

Regardless of how, the district “needs to have that laser-light focus” to get where it needs to be, Veno said.

"We can talk about all these wonderful things we'd like to see happening," school board President Jennifer Smallwood said. "But where do we get the resources?"

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